Chris Cobler‘s injunction to journalists to get blogging has attracted some attention. He’s just become the managing editor of US website Poynter Online, which aims to raise standards in journalism (it’s one of my personal faves).

He was also, until recently, in charge of the Greeley Tribune, which has just admitted ripping off stories from competitors for the past ten years or so. Ah…

The Greeley Tribune reports its shame thus:

The Greeley Tribune has stopped a long-held practice of reprinting stories from other Colorado newspapers that many in the industry say breached journalistic ethics.

…The practice came to light last week when a Loveland Reporter-Herald editor called Tribune Editor Randy Bangert to complain.

“We had been watching for three years,” said Lauren Lehman, spokeswoman for the Reporter-Herald, and an owner of the newspaper. “You sort of can’t believe that’s happening. We couldn’t believe it was happening, but it finally became evident. … We’d like our work product to be in our newspaper, and the Tribune should generate its own stories.”

Bangert said he put an immediate stop to the practice after learning from AP that it was not allowed.

“We had been doing it for many years under the assumption that it was OK to do,” Bangert explained, adding that he believed former editor Chris Cobler had an arrangement with AP. “I couldn’t pinpoint when we started it. It was almost a decade. Basically, no other newspaper said anything and AP didn’t say anything, and no one objected. It became a part of our routine.”

Cobler, who was editor of the Tribune from 1995-2005, said he remembers sending stories from other newspapers to the newsroom as tips for reporters to follow up on with their own work, but practices may have relaxed through the years.

“It never became an issue and it was never anything to worry about. It is certainly true that AP would process any of those stories if we asked them to,” Cobler said.

“I feel terrible this practice apparently started under my watch, because as editor I’m responsible,” Cobler added later.

The Reporter-Herald’s sudden discovery of the practice led the Fort Collins Coloradoan editors to investigate if any of their stories also were reprinted in the Tribune. Executive Editor Bob Moore called the practice “one-step-removed” from plagiarism.

“This is not shaving around the edges. It’s just tromping all over ethical standards that are accepted,” said Moore, who added that some Coloradoan stories were found on the Tribune’s Web site.

“I wouldn’t call it plagiarism. I’d call it a misunderstanding,” Cobler said.

A misunderstanding. That would be it.